Most people can get in the water and make the
swim appropriate movements with arms and legs for a short time, but keeping
it going for good distance is another story. Mastering the freestyle breathing
pattern is a challenge. You can't swim nonstop until you get comfortable
with breathing often enough to sustain your aerobic effort level.

The easiest pattern to master is to take a breath every second stroke. This
means all of your breathing is on either the right or left side. The moment
to breathe is when your pulling arm is halfway back, under your chest. If
you're pulling with the left arm you should be breathing to the right side
and vice-versa breathing to the left. The first year I swam almost all of
my breathing was to the right; to the left I felt unbalanced and had no
flow to the movement. Most new swimmers experience this.

Also, you should hold the air in your lungs until the moment just before
your mouth breaks the surface. If you blow air out the whole time your face
is in the water you may feel the need to inhale before you actually can.
You'll also lose buoyancy. So for most of your stroke you're holding the
air, then exhale-inhale just before and just after your mouth is above the
waterline.

The natural tendency for new swimmers is to hold their head and upper body
too high in the water. Our bodies have only so much float, so if your
head and chest are high, your hips and legs will drop, slowing you
down. Proper head position when you're not breathing is head facing down
towards bottom of pool with just a sliver of your head above waterline,
chin down, eyes looking mostly down toward bottom of pool. This is the correct
position as your hand/arm is entering the water out front and during most
of the stroke. If the water hits at forehead level your head is too high.
The exception of course is sight breathing, more about that in another article.

You should not lift your head to breathe; in fact your head shouldn't move
much at all as you swim. This is where body roll becomes crucial. As your
hand/arm is pulling back at chest level you should be rolling your body
so your chest faces the side of the pool, not the bottom. At this point
of the stroke the shoulder of the pulling arm is going towards the bottom
of the pool and the recovery arm's shoulder is out of the water.

As you take in air your head should stay low as the waterline essentially
'splits' your face with the corner of your mouth at water level. I can remember
my first coach telling me: "Keep your ear in the water!"

You can get a feel for being on your side by just kicking with no pull.
Kick with your arms at your side while rolling from face down, to facing
the side of the pool, back to face down. It's easiest not to breathe with
this drill, just stand up after a few seconds of kicking in the shallow
end of pool.

Once you feel smooth breathing on your favored side, bi-lateral breathing
is the next step. This is when you breathe every third stroke alternating
sides. Bi-lateral breathing helps even-out your stroke, making it more symmetrical
and efficient. If you need more oxygen than you can take-in every third
stroke, breathe every second stroke and switch sides often.

Another common flaw for new swimmers is kicking from the knee with a motion
similar to pedaling. A good kick is from the hips with only slight flexion
at the knees. Good ankle flexibility helps your kick as you must be able
to point your toes to create some thrust with the beating motion. Swimming
with fins can help stretch out the tendons over the front of your ankle
so toes can point, but don't train with them all the time though, as you'll
have to leave them behind on race day!

One last technique issue to work on from the beginning is streamlining.
Your body should feel long and all your motion is driving you forward, not
laterally. Consider what happens with your hand out the window of a car
at highway speeds in different positions. Just like this water offers a
huge amount of resistance, so you pay dearly for any shapes or motions that
make you 'bigger' in the water, causing extra drag. Practice streamlining
as you push off the wall each time. Put your hands together out front, extend
your arms from the shoulder and squeeze your head between them. Kick a couple
beats, then begin pulling with arms again...